At the 10-Year Anniversary celebration for Northwestern University Center for Synthetic Biology (CSB) on Wednesday, two words that kept being mentioned were “community” and “collaboration.”
The presence of those two ideas was instrumental in helping the CSB launch and have a profoundly impactful first decade as a Center. On Thursday at the annual CSB retreat — held at the Woman’s Club of Evanston — “community” and “collaboration” were both on full display.
While Wednesday’s event was an outward-facing celebration of the impact and potential of the CSB, and featured notable guest speakers including U.S. Senator Dick Durbin and Northwestern University Interim President Henry Bienen, Thursday’s festivities were focused inward on the researchers and trainees who make the Center what it is today.
The morning began with an inspirational keynote address from Mark Mimee, Assistant Professor of Microbiology at the University of Chicago. Mimee spoke about his research on the microbiome and how his lab is working to engineer gut commensals to sense and treat disease.
“People are very confident that disease induces changes in the microbiome,” Mimee said. “But the field has moved to what I would argue is a much more important question: Does the microbiome truly affect disease?”
Following a fun group photo featuring dozens of CSB researchers, trainees, and staff, attendees were treated to a live demonstration of coding with Claude. Xav Bower, a graduate student and member of the CSB Trainee Association (CTA) Board, led the coding tutorial.
During their talk, they highlighted the Board’s weekly “jam session” workshops on agentic coding that are available to anyone affiliated with the CSB. Since launching in March, the workshops have already attracted trainees from 10 different CSB labs.
Attendees then went behind the scenes of current CSB research as more than 20 trainees provided first-hand accounts of their work during a student poster session. The opportunity allowed the trainees to explain the purpose and potential of their research while also displaying the breadth and depth of topics currently being explored within the CSB.
Poster presentation topics ranged from targeting pathogenic macrophages to treat pulmonary fibrosis and evaluating over-the-counter probiotics to using computational tools to redesign plastics and developing in-class biosensing experiences with local high school teachers.
At Wednesday’s 10-Year Anniversary, the CSB awarded its first ever distinguished trainee awards. Distinguished Trainee Award Postdoc co-winner Rachel Mizenko, PhD, and Distinguished Trainee Award Graduate Student runner-up Dylan Brown delivered trainee talks on Wednesday. Mizenko discussed “Developing a trans-amplifying RNA reporter assay for sensitive detection of protein delivery by lipid-based nanocarriers” while Brown explored “Expanding Cell-Free Biosensor Platforms Through Automation, Materials, and New Targets.”
On Thursday, Distinguished Trainee Award Postdoc co-winner Nitu Kumari delivered her own trainee talk on “Decoding Cell State and Cell Fate Decisions.” Distinguished Trainee Award Graduate Student winner Daniel de Castro Assumpção presented his talk via Zoom on “Reaching the Liver, and the Liver only: A Targeted Nanodelivery Strategy.”
Following the trainee talks, CSB trainees put their collaboration skills to the test in a series of “Olympic” style events, including what team could make the tallest tower out of pipe cleaners to who could make the most baskets using an inflated beach ball.
To cap off the experience, attendees were treated to a careers-focused panel discussion held in partnership with Northwestern Engineering’s Master of Biotechnology Program (MBP). The panel, supported by the CTA and the Association of Biotechnology Students, featured five industry professionals:
- Ryan Abbott, Chief Technology Officer at Acorn Genetics
- Kate Barkus, Project Management Consultant at Barkus Consulting Limited
- Michael Born (MBP ’12), Technical Development Senior Principal Scientist at Genentech
- Jose Carlos Garcia-Garcia, Senior Director, Research Fellow, and Head of Corporate Biotechnology at Procter & Gamble, as well as a member of the new CSB Executive Advisory Board
- Julie Ming Liang, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Opera Bioscience
Danielle Tullman-Ercek, who is co-director of the CSB and director of the MBP, moderated the panel discussion.
“These two days were not only a celebration of the CSB and all that has been accomplished since its founding 10 years ago, but the real celebration is about the people who make the CSB what it is,” Tullman-Ercek said. “I’m honored to lead the Center alongside Julius Lucks, and I can’t wait to see what our incredibly talented researchers and trainees do to help shape the world moving forward.”
Story by Marc Zarefsky
Photography by Vanessa Bly